Every time I see a news like this, it reminds me of Project Work back in Junior College.
Of the two themes in 2009, I picked ‘Emergency’ with my initial idea being to apply the lessons learned in Youth Suicides to Mass Murders.
I eventually ended up with fire evacuation instead, a more conventional emergency, after getting persuaded out of it by my teacher.
Since then, US have seen 156 mass shootings, resulting in 848 people killed and 339 people injured; 66 perpetrators committed suicide while another 17 were shot and killed by law enforcement. [1]
And these figures took into account only the years 2009–2016. This not only show the seriousness of mass murder as a problem to be looked into, but once again emphasizes just how lethal this deadliest shooting in modern US history really is.
And this is just the US. Even though it possesses the highest occurrence rate in mass murders due to various reasons, it’s not like there are no such things happening elsewhere in the world.
It is an issue we should all be concerned with.
While Youth Suicides and Mass Murders may not be the first things that come to people’s mind when discussing about emergencies, I simply saw ‘Emergency’ as things which require urgent and immediate attention.
And if all these doesn’t warrant immediate attention and action in preventing such incidents in the future, I don’t know what does.
From natural disasters to terrorism, we do have a lot to be concerned with, and to defend ourselves against. The frequency and impacts of these mass shootings however, should more than qualify it as an emergency alongside those and I just felt that there ought to be more measures taken against such incidents.
While mass murders can be attributed to many different reasons, such as hate crimes, domestic violence, or psychopathology, the deadliest ones usually have a common element — firearms.
Why am I writing this?
I did not write this to come up with solutions; there are many more who are much more capable of doing so.
I did not write it to provide information either; amidst many unreliable sources, I believe/hope that we still know enough to listen to only the credible media outlets for information — and I admit that I have not done much research and reading up before writing it.
In fact, while I was slightly taken aback upon seeing the news, I did not bother to find out much about it.
And that is the reason I’m writing this.
The real shocking thing here is how I, and perhaps many others as well, can be relatively apathetic to such news, or rather, desensitize due to how prevalence of such situations, and how media has always try to sensationalize it beyond what it has to be.
There was a reason that the me of 8 years ago saw mass murders as an emergency.
I might not know much back then, and I might be just trying to complete an assignment; but I knew the seriousness of this.
The me today have learned much more about the world, but perhaps at the same time, unfortunately, also lost some.
Of course, simply thinking and writing about this is not going to start some movement or campaign towards helping those in need, or reducing the chances of future incidents any lower.
I’m writing this just to reflect upon myself — my perceptions of the society and world at large, the way I think about certain issues, and how I can improve upon in that aspect, or in any aspects really.
And if by doing so I might be able to help you do the same too, in any ways, then that is more than enough.
Making a change has to start small, but with perseverance it can go a long way.
While this may not be a very all-rounded view of the matter, it wasn’t meant to be. I’ll be more than happy to learn more from differing perspectives and regarding different aspects as it is only by doing so that we can seek to come up with effective solutions to problems faced by us; to deal with the emergencies that we are living in.
